Bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) are thought to have been invented in about 1948, for example see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,524,033 and 2,569,347, incorporated herein by reference, wherein the use of semiconductors such as SiC was mentioned. In addition U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,918,396, 4,945,394, 5,610,411 and 6,329,675, incorporated herein by reference, are examples of patents that use SiC in BJTs.
A number of different semiconductor-device structures have been published and/or commercially developed. Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) (see above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 2,569,347) were made using a variety of different semiconductors in the same device structure. For example U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,742 by J. Pankove describes a GaN/SiC HBT, incorporated herein by reference.
In accordance with the present invention, direct-wafer-bonding (for example see Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, p.737, 1990, by Z. L. Liau and D. E. Mull) provides an elegant and cost effective alternative for forming wide-bandgap heterojunctions, wherein direct-wafer-bonding is performed using commercially available wafers and standard device processing.
Wafer-bonding of dissimilar semiconductors is a technology that has facilitated the manufacture of red AlInGaP/GaP light emitting diodes (LEDs) (see Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, p. 737, 1990, by Z. L. Liau and D. E. Mull), mirror stacks for long-wavelength VCSELs (see IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 7, 1225, 1995, by D. I. Babic et al), and Si/InGaAs p-i-n photodetectors (see Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 2449, 1997, by B. F. Levine et al) with near-perfect interfaces, wherein the above-mentioned AlInGaP LEDs are manufactured using a high-volume production process, resulting in low cost products.